Many archaeological sites
have never been lost: the pyramids of Gizeh or the temples of Thebes have
always remained visible, just to mention two obvious examples.

Other sites were found by
accident: in one instance, the famous archaeologist Howard Carter was
riding his horse at Deir el-Bahri, Thebes West, and it stumbled into the
top of the shaft of the tomb now called Bab el-Hosan. Finding objects
and sites during farming and construction work is very common, especially
when an ancient site is still occupied.

Ancient places may be relocated
from mention in written sources. The most celebrated example comes from
ancient Greek literature: the city of Troy is the focus of the epic poem
by Homer, the Iliad, and Heinrich Schliemann used this to identify the
site on the ground. Place names can also provide clues to the location
of lost ancient sites.

surveying an area

Archaeologists survey a region to record as many archaeological sites
as possible, often as a preliminary operation for selecting a single
site to excavate. Archaeologists walk over an area and record all extant
visible archaeological features, from pottery sherds to architectural
remains. For a greater area the researcher can use cars and ask the
local population; aerial photography can also be invaluable, though
it has not been much used yet in Egyptian archaeology. Examples of surveys
in Egypt: Memphis (Jeffreys
1985), Mallawi-Samalut (Kessler
1981).

Geophysical survey

Buried
s tructures can be detected without or before excavating them.

Seismic and acoustic methods
- striking the ground to record the resulting sound

Electromagnetic methods - using radio
pulses

Electrical resistivity - using electrical
impulses

Magnetic survey - useful for finding metal
and fired clay structures; these objects produce slight distortions in
the magnetic field of the earth (used today for revealing the plan of
Qantir/Piramesses - Pusch/Becker/Fassbinder
1999)

Making a map

Creating a reliable map can be very difficult but is extermely important.
A map needs at least one fixed point - a starting point for measurements
- which will be still there after a longer period. Trees and houses
are therefore not very useful, because they can disappear after a short
period. Churches and mosques are more useful, because it seems less
likely that they will be destroyed. At more intensively explored archaeological
sites such as Saqqara fixed points have been installed by archaeologists
(example: metal staff on the Unas
pyramid at Saqqara). Examples of high standard mappings in Egypt: Amarna
(Kemp/Garfi 1993); Valley
of the Kings (Weeks 2000).